Half-centuries from Finn Allen and Glenn Phillips coupled with bowling spells from Kyle Jamieson and Ish Sodhi helped New Zealand secure a 74-run win over England in the third T20I at Birmingham. With this, England is leading the series 2-1, with one game to go. Electing to bat first, New Zealand was off to a decent start but lost opener Devon Conway (9) to a run-out by Moeen Ali and skipper Jos Buttler.
NZ was 31/1 in 3.5 overs. At the end of power-play, England was 48/1 in six overs. Allen had a solid 44-run partnership with Tim Seifert, which ended with Liam Livingstone dismissing Seifert for 19 off 17 balls. NZ was 75/2 in 9.1 overs. Allen cruised to his fifty in 35 balls, with four boundaries and three sixes. NZ reached the 100-run mark in 12 overs. Allen and Glenn Phillips upped the attack with some powerful hitting and brought up their 50-run stand in just 31 balls. NZ reached the 150-run mark in 16.1 overs. The 88-run stand between Allen and Glenn ended with Luke Wood cleaning up Allen for 83 off 53 balls, consisting of four boundaries and six sixes. NZ was 163/3 in 17 overs. Phillips reached his fifty in just 27 balls, with five fours and two sixes. He was dismissed by Gus Atkinson for 69 off 34 balls with five fours and five sixes. England was 185/4 in 18.2 overs.
Atkinson also got Daryl Mitchell (8). NZ ended their innings at 202/5 in 20 overs. Atkinson (2/31) continued his good form in his debut series, ending as the top bowler for England. Livingstone and Luke got one wicket each. In the chase of 203 runs, England was off to an ugly start, losing Will Jacks (11), Dawid Malan (2) and Jonny Bairstow (12) quickly. They were reduced to 30/3 in 6.1 overs. Harry Brook and skipper Jos Buttler tried to up the scoring, but Brook’s dismissal for eight reduced England to 55/4 in 8.3 overs, with Sodhi taking two wickets out of these, Jamieson and Tim Southee getting one each.
Mooen and Buttler looked set to help England cross the 100-run mark, but the England skipper Buttler was caught and bowled by Mitchell Santner for 40 off 21 balls with three fours and three sixes. England was 92/5 in 12.1 overs. England reached 100 in 14 overs. But there was simply no recovering for them after Buttler’s dismissal as they were bundled out for 128 in 18.3 overs. Moeen was also dismissed for 26. Jamieson (3/23) and Sodhi (3/33) were the pick of the bowlers for NZ. Southee took two while Santner and Matt Henry took one each. Allen won the ‘Player of the Match’ award.
